zoology

This is an exciting weekend for science!
This Friday and Saturday the 8th annual Arizona Physiological Society is hosting their annual conference in Glendale, Arizona. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Andrew Biewener (Harvard University) who will present “How Do Running Animals Achieve Stability? The Neuromechanical Control of Rapid Locomotion.” The Arizona Distinguished Lecturer will be Dr. Eldon Braun (University of Arizona) who will present “The Comparative Physiology of Osmoregulation: Lessons from Avian Studies.”
The second meeting of TetZooCon, otherwise known as the Tetrapod Zoology…

tags: Walk-Through of NYC's American Museum of Natural History, museum, natural history museum, AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, NYC, New York City, culture, edutainment, streaming video
This is a rather nice video with a home-made feel to it. It presents a quick view of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, starting on the subway platform (filled with lots of beautiful tile art, all of which I've photographed and shared on my blog). (I noticed that they seem to have finished refurbishing their Indians of the Pacific Northwet exhibit).
The AMNH is a scientific…

tags: Close Encounter with a Whale Shark in the Gulf of Mexico, marine biology, field research, research, technology, whale shark, Rhincodon typus, satellite tags, Gulf of Mexico, BP, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, University of Southern Mississippi, streaming video
Whale Shark, Rhincodon typus, feeding in the Gulf of Mexico.
Image: Gulf Coast Research Laboratory Whale Shark Research.
Despite being the largest fish species in the world, measuring over 40 feet in length and 35 tons in weight, whale sharks are quite mysterious. We know they are plankton filter feeders, and we recently…

tags: What, If Anything, Is Big Bird?, taxonomy, taxonomy, evolution, Grandicrocavis, Big Bird, flightless birds, ratites, humor, comedy, science humor, dinosaur humor, Mike Dickison, PechaKucha, Christchurch, streaming video
Years ago, when Zoologist Mike Dickison was in the early stages of his PhD, he gave a joke presentation at a graduate student conference on the taxonomy and evolution of a giant flightless bird. It was the sort of thing you'd see at any conference on avian evolution: a Latin name, reconstructed skeleton, possible place on the great evolutionary tree of birds. The tone…

tags: Evolution in Action by AMNH, Congo River, fishes, AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, evolution, variation, biodiversity, Melanie Stiassny, streaming video
This video tells the story of speciation in Central Africa's roiling, rapid Lower Congo River. This river is home to an extraordinary assortment of fish -- many truly bizarre. This new video by Science Bulletins, the American Museum of Natural History's current-science video program, features Museum scientists on a quest to understand why so many species have evolved here. Follow Curator of Ichthyology Melanie Stiassny and her…

tags: Inside the Collections: Ichthyology at AMNH, fishes, AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, evolution, variation, biodiversity, Melanie Stiassny, streaming video
This video is the first of a new series of behind-the-scenes looks at the collections at the American Museum of Natural History. In this video, Melanie Stiassny, Axelrod Research Curator in the Department of Ichthyology, takes us through the Museum's vast collection of fishes.
The Department of Ichthyology, one of the four departments within the Museum's Division of Vertebrate Zoology, houses a collection that comprises more…

tags: evolution, biogeography, phylogeography, animals, Here Be Dragons, How the Study of Animal and Plant Distributions Revolutionized Our Views of Life and Earth, Dennis McCarthy, book review
I'm happy: another book review of mine was just published, this time, by Science magazine. This book, Here Be Dragons: How the Study of Animal and Plant Distributions Revolutionized Our Views of Life and Earth (Oxford University Press: Oxford; 2009), is by Dennis McCarthy, a researcher at the Buffalo Museum of Science in Buffalo, New York. In short, I liked the book and I thought it was generally well-…

tags: The Intriguing Sound of Marine Mammals, sounds, songs, communication, language acquisition, noise pollution, shipping, acoustic environment, vocal imprinting, marine mammals, dolphins, whales, Peter Tyack, TEDTalks, TED Talks, streaming video
Bird watchers (especially those who do most of their birding by ear) will particularly enjoy this video: Peter Tyack of Woods Hole talks about a hidden wonder of the sea: underwater sound. Onstage at Mission Blue, he explains the amazing ways whales use sound and song to communicate across hundreds of miles of ocean.
TEDTalks is a daily video…

tags: How Poachers became Caretakers, Namibia, conservation biology, endangered species, wildlife, poachers, John Kasaona, TEDTalks, TED Talks, streaming video
In his home of Namibia, John Kasaona is working on an innovative way to protect endangered animal species: giving nearby villagers (including former poachers) responsibility for caring for the animals. And it's working.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al…

tags: Obsession for .. Animals?, perfume, Obsession for Men, Bronx Zoo, Wildlife Conservation Society, conservation biology, behavioral ecology, animals, mammals, big cats, weird, strange, wow, streaming video
This fascinating video shows that Calvin Klein's "Obsession for Men" is NOT just for men! This is a great example of how careful observation of captive animals' behavior is directly impacting research with wild animals. When biologists at the Bronx Zoo started spritzing "Obsession for Men" cologne near heat-and-motion-sensitive cameras, the tigers, snow leopards, jaguars and cheetahs…

tags: Brian Skerry Reveals Ocean's Glory -- and Horror, conservation, marine biology, fish, marine mammals, oceans, sharks, leatherback sea turtle, right whale, overfishing, photographer, Brian Skerry, TEDTalks, TED Talks, streaming video
Professional photographer Brian Skerry shoots life above and below the waves -- as he puts it, both the horror and the magic of the ocean. Sharing amazing, intimate shots of undersea creatures, he shows how powerful images can help make change.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's…

Treehugger reports on the work of marine scientists at Brazil's Guaruja Aquarium, who have added a plastic window onto a shark egg so they can watch the fish develop.
In the photo above you can see the fetal bamboo shark attached to a large yolk sac. The video below gives a better view.
After noting that the unborn shark was unaffected by the window on its neonatal world, researchers removed the entire animal from its purse and allowed it to grow inside a perspex container. The work will help shed more light on how young sharks develop, an understanding of which is crucial to the…

tags: Paleontology, birds, Genyornis newtoni, rock art, aboriginal peoples, Archaeology, Australia, Niwarla Gabarnmung, Arnhem Land, Flinders University
Australia's oldest painting?
A red ochre rock art depiction of two emu-like birds (Genyornis newtoni?)
with their necks outstretched.
Image: Ben Gunn [larger view]
An Australian Aboriginal rock art may depict a giant bird that is thought to have become extinct some 40,000 years ago, thereby making it the oldest rock painting on the island continent. The red ochre drawing was first discovered two years ago, but archaeologists were only…

tags: Amazing Jellies, jellyfish, siphonophores, gelata, gelatinous zooplankton, gelatinous marine animals, fluorescence, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Chad Widmer, Steve Haddock, QUEST, KQED, television, documentary, streaming video
Perhaps you'd like to see what some of those creatures are that are being endangered by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? This lovely video provides a glimpse of the "gelata": siphonophores, jellies and other soft, gelatinous marine animals that lack bones and brains, but nonetheless, comprise much of marine life. They are otherworldly creatures that glow in the dark…

tags: Life in the Aphotic Zone, animals, marine life, marine biology, bioluminescence, benthic zone, abyssal zone, streaming video
This fascinating video captures a glimpse of the weird and wonderful animals that live in the aphotic zone. The aphotic zone (aphotic from Greek prefix á¼- + Ïá¿¶Ï "without light") is the portion of a lake or ocean where there is little or no sunlight. It is formally defined as the depths beyond which less than 1% of sunlight penetrates. Consequently, bioluminescence is essentially the only light found in this zone. Most food comes from dead organisms sinking to…

tags: Parrots the Universe and Everything, biogeography, lemurs, twig technology, conservation, endangered species, evolution, komodo dragons, kakapo, baiji, comedy, Douglas Adams, streaming video
Douglas Adams was the best-selling British author and satirist who created The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [DVD]. In this talk at UCSB recorded shortly before his tragic and untimely death, Adams shares hilarious accounts of some of the apparently absurd lifestyles of the world's creatures, and gleans from them extraordinary perceptions about the future of humanity.

Pagination

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As I write this, I'm told that there are eleven water cannon vehicles heading to the disaster-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, to attempt to cool down nuclear material that is exposed and exuding (I dare not use the word "leaking" lest I be thought an alarmist) radiation at a rate that seems to be as alarming to the engineers and nuclear experts on the scene as it is assuaging to…

Prepare yourself.
The Te Papa Museum of New Zealand has a new specimen locked in a vault: a colossal squid that will be thawed and dissected (they think!) on streaming video.
Here is the necromantic chamber.
Wait! No protective runes, no array of emergency thuribles, no pentagram, no mysterious idols of jade and obsidian? This may not go well.